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Mandrake
A Mandrake, also known as Mandragora, is a plant which has a root that looks like a human (like a baby when the plant is young, but maturing as the plant grows). When matured, its cry can be fatal to any person who hears it. History Minister for Magic Venusia Crickerly died in 1912, following a freak Mandrake-related gardening accident. Mandrakes are part of the second-year Herbology curriculum at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry. In the 1992-1993 school year, the school's growth of Mandrakes served the additional purpose of making a Restorative Draught to revive all those who had been Petrified during the Chamber of Secrets openings. During the Battle of Hogwarts, Professor Sprout, Neville Longbottom, and other students, lobbed Mandrakes over the Castle's battlements to attack the Death Eaters. Description and traits Whenever unearthed, the root screams. The scream of a mature Mandrake when it is unearthed will kill any person who hears it, but a young Mandrake's screams will usually only knock a person out for several hours. When Hogwarts students study Mandrakes in Herbology class, Pomona Sprout had the students wear earmuffs to protect their ears from the Mandrake's cries. Mandrakes not only resemble humans, but also have similar behaviours to them. In the 1992-1993 school year, the Mandrakes, at one point of time, became moody and secretive, which indicated that they were reaching adolescence. Later on, they threw a loud party, which is comparable to humans when they are teenagers. Hagrid also mentioned the Mandrakes having acne. Mandrakes are fully matured when they start moving into each others pots. When matured, Mandrakes can be cut up to serve as a prime ingredient for the Mandrake Restorative Draught, which is used to cure those who have been Petrified. A Mandrake's scream is very similar to (if not the same as) a banshee's scream, which is also fatal. The Dugbog's favourite food is Mandrakes, which leads to Mandrake-growers finding nothing but a bloody mess when pulling their plants out. Flesh-Eating Slugs are known to favour Mandrakes. Stewed Mandrake is used in potion-making, forming an essential part of most antidotes. Their leaves are also used as well. Etymology teaches her Second year Herbology students how to pot young Mandrakes]] The (European) Mandrake plant has been used since ancient times as a medicinal plant and has a tradition associated with magical activities. It is a member of the nightshade family. It contains hyoscyamine, scopolamine, and mandragorin. Medically, it has been used as a pain killer and a sedative. It was used in ancient times for surgery. An overdose, though, can be fatal. and Ron replanting Mandrakes]] Because of its roots' shapes resembling humans, it has been used in magical operations, and as a supposed aphrodisiac. There are variations on the plant, Mandragora Offininarum being the most usual form, with the smaller Mandragora autumnalis having the same properties. Some folk traditions call the latter (M. autumnalis) variety as "Womandrake" in distinction to M. Officinarum as "Mandrake." A third variant, Mandragora turcomanica, is a nearly extinct and very rare variety, found mostly in Turkey and a few areas of Iran. M. turcomanica is distinguished from M. autumnalis by having larger fruit. In the Western Hemisphere, another plant, Podophyllum petaltum, is called the American Mandrake. The American Mandrake is unrelated to the European variety, and has fewer medical applications. It, too, is poisonous. Torturing Uther Pendragon Morgause, with the help of her half-sister Morgana, used it to enchant Uther Pendragon and make him lose his mind. Morgause prepared a potion in a big cauldron, a thick, dense, black liquid similar to dark mud, and threw a handkerchief, which had the tears of Uther on it with the root itself in it that sank in the potion. While doing this, the mandrake emitted a piercing scream that only those with magic could hear. For those without magic, Morgause explained, the root would pierce the very recesses of the soul, twisting the unconscious into the very image of fear and dread. She then pronounced a spell ("Mid þæm wundorcræft þæs ealdan æwe ic þe hate nime Utheres wopdropan ond þa gemengan mid his blod. Sy he under wittig ond deofol seocnes his heorte afylþ") and took the root from the cauldron. Morgana placed it under Uther's bed, and the liquid started to drip from the mandrake. The spell caused Uther to hallucinate, seeing people who had died because of his choices and actions before and during the Great Purge. These included his wife Ygraine frightened and bleeding, begging Uther not to harm her and an unknown drowned boy, who was revealed by Gaius to be one of the many children Uther had killed simply because of the magic they had inherited from their parents. The spell gave the impression to the people of Camelot that their King was losing his mind. Every night, Morgana had to return to Morgause's cave and cover again the mandrake root with the potion. One night she was seen by a guard who thought she was bleeding, and she was forced to kill him. Morgana also worsened Uther's sickness by wrapping the mandrake up with a string and pulling it twice: this caused the root to scream, like if it was in pain, and so Uther had another vision of Ygraine with many drowned boys, begging the King not to harm them. The root was in the end destroyed by Merlin, who threw it into some flames. Without the root, Morgause's enchantment no longer held and Uther recovered (The Tears of Uther Pendragon). The Dark Tower In a wicked plan to brainwash Queen Guinevere and turn her against Camelot, Morgana kidnapped her former maid and took her to the Dark Tower, a place of terror that haunted the hearts and minds of men. She held the Queen locked in a dark, gloomy room filled with a large number of mandrake roots hanging from the ceiling, each of them covered with the black, muddy potion that dripped off them. The cruel magic of the mandrake roots pierced the depths of Gwen's soul, twisting her unconscious into the very image of fear and dread. The woman spent an undefined period of time (probably a few days) being haunted by visions of Elyan, Merlin, and Arthur, taunting her and teasing her, while hearing ghostly screams of terror and other spirits laugh at her. Morgana paid Guinevere a few visits, one time even to get her to dine with her, to show her how nice and friendly she was compared to the evil people in her visions. The High Priestess, with her gentile manners and desire to lovingly take care of the Queen, induced Gwen to believe that she was all she had left in the world, her only friend, the only one she could trust, while her other former friends hated her and taunted her. So strong was the magic of the mandrake roots, along with Morgana's deception, that, although Gwen turned against the sorceress a couple of times, in the end she was completely taken in by her mind game. Even after she was rescued by Arthur and taken back to Camelot, Guinevere was still under Morgana's influence and she had become her ally, sharing the same hatred towards everyone in Camelot (The Dark Tower). It was later revealed, in the episode "With All My Heart", that Morgana had performed on Gwen an ancient ritual of the Old Religion called the "Teine Diaga", the "sacred fire". According to Gaius, the ritual used the mandrake root to bring unimaginable terror to the victim (their screams could be heard twenty leagues away). When it was finally over, their will was no longer their own, they were slaves of the High Priestesses for eternity. As a boy, Gaius was privy only to rumors, for such mysteries were revealed only to a handful of female initiates, destined to become High Priestesses. In Merlin's time, the only people who truly knew the Old Ways and the Teine Diaga were Morgana Pendragon and the ancient Dochraid. Merlin, disguised as Old Emrys, went to the old hag's cave to ask her how to break the sorceress' spell. The Dochraid refused, since Emrys was no friend of the Old Religion or of Morgana. Merlin threatened her with Excalibur, the only weapon which could kill a creature of the earth such as the Dochraid. With the sword at her throat, the hag told Merlin that Guinevere was doomed, her spirit consumed by the Teine Diaga and bound to the Silver Wheel for all eternity. Her body was nothing but an empty vessel, filled by Morgana's will. To free the Queen's spirit, a thing that only the most powerful sorcerers could hope to attempt, Merlin would have had to travel to the Cauldron of Arianrhod and there use all his powers to summon the White Goddess herself. The waters of the Cauldron held the Goddess' powers and only their touch could heal her, but Gwen would have had to enter the lake willingly; if she were tricked, forced or beguiled, she would fall into the abyss and be lost forever. Trivia *Although never confirmed or explained, it is possible that when a mandrake's effects on a person are worsened, it can partially reduce a person's consciousness and focus the victim more on their visions than their surroundings. In fact, when Uther's sickness was worsened, he was so lost in visions that he was unaware that Morgana was standing in front of him even when he was awake. *According to Katie McGrath (Morgana), in the audio commentary of Series 3 Episode 1 (The Tears of Uther Pendragon: Part One), she and Emilia Fox (Morgause) were so fond of the mandrake root they nicknamed it "Manny". *The enchantment cast by Morgana on the many mandrake roots used to traumatize Gwen must have been different from the magic worked by Morgause, because the Witch hadn't probably used the Queen's tears and she didn't have to continuously recover the roots with the black potion. Behind the scenes *In , mandrakes can be found throughout the castle and grounds and can be used to break glass objects. Also the player can make it sing as an extra (cheat code). *In the Game Boy Color version of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, the "Mandrake Root" item does not resemble the babies seen in other versions, and in fact looks more like a leaf than a root, suggesting the item is merely misnamed. Appearances * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Notes and references de:Alraune es:Mandrágora fr:Mandragore it:Mandragola nl:Mandragora pl:Mandragora pt-br:Mandrágora ru:Мандрагора Category:Mandrakes Category:Noise-making Plants Category:Potion ingredients Category:Folio Bruti entries